Unit 1: Narrative Writing

Topic Sentence- Main idea or “Grabber” Supporting Details-sentences that support

the topic/main idea. Transition Words and Phrases Closing sentence Correct Punctuation, Spelling, and grammar

Parts of a Paragraph

Your purpose is your main reason for writing. The four main purposes for writing are to inform, to explain, to narrate, or to persuade.

To InformTo inform means to share or show information. Informative writing gives facts and details. Examples of writing to inform include reports, paragraphs of information, news stories, and instructions.

To Explain To explain means to tell about a topic by describing what, why, and how. You can explain a topic in any type of writing. Some examples of writing to explain are instructions, how-to paragraphs, science observation reports, and explanations.

Purposes for Writing

To NarrateTo narrate means to tell a story, whether that story is true or made up. Some examples of narrative writing include personal narratives, stories, and plays.

  To Persuade

To persuade means to convince someone else to agree with your opinion or to take action. Examples of writing to persuade include opinion paragraphs, persuasive essays, and book and film reviews.

Purposes for Writing

To narrate means to tell a story, whether that story is true or made up.

Some examples of narrative writing include personal experiences, events, stories, plot summaries and plays.

Narrative Writing

A beginning that introduces the main characters and setting

A middle that shows how the characters react to the problem

Dialogue between the characters Colorful details that describe the events in

the plot An ending that shows a solution to the

problem

Parts of a short story

Great writers use sensory details: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste to make their writing come to life!

Allow the reader to experience what you describe…

Use strong verbs, good adjectives and adverbs to create vivid description.

DON’T bore your reader

Sensory Details-Show, Don’t Tell!!!

Dialogue explores an idea and sounds like a real conversation.

It can show what characters are like and reveal point of view-dialogue allows you to inference character traits

What is dialogue?

RULE #1: Use quotation marks to indicate words which are spoken by characters.

RULE #2: Always start a new paragraph when changing speakers. You cannot have two people speaking in the same paragraph. 

RULE #3: Make sure the reader knows who is speaking.

RULE #4: Use correct punctuation and capitalization.

Dialogue Writing Rules

1. Steve said,  "Good morning."

2. "Good morning,"  said Steve.

3. Steve said,  "Good morning,"  then sat down.

4. "Ladies and gentlemen,"  said Steve,  "good morning.”

5. "Where did they go?"  she asked.

Dialogue Examples

“Writing history skits is a blast!” said Ms. Ghose, the fifth grade social studies teacher.

“In your dreams,” muttered Evan as he sat down with his group. He could see that he would have to be the leader. “Okay, let’s decide who we’ll be. How about George and Martha Washington?”

“That is so pathetic,” said Derek, who thought everything was pathetic and who rarely smiled.

Dialogue Sample

Imagine you were able to meet your favorite cartoon character or celebrity. How would you meet?

What would you say? Write a minimum of 10 sentence dialogue between the two of you on them paper.

Be sure to follow the rules of dialogue, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Writing Prompt